May 2010

Lori Reed, creator with Heather Braum of the website Save Libraries is preparing background for a news story on which library systems are facing cuts. We could use your assistance and make the biggest impact and the loudest entreaties to budgetary decision-makers with a near complete list of libraries facing cuts.

Apart from the states of New York and New Jersey, San Jose CA, Boston, MA Charlotte NC and Jacksonville, FL…please let us know what other state, city or regional systems may have to be cut back or cut out by adding your comment below.

Liana Lupas stands out in New York, even by the standards of a city that defines itself with superlatives and seems to have world-class specialists in every conceivable discipline. She calls herself “the only librarian in the world who takes care of one book.”

Of course, that book is “the” Book, the Bible. And in two decades with the American Bible Society and the Museum of Biblical Art, Lupas has been responsible for a collection that includes more than 45,000 books of Scripture printed in more than 2,000 languages during six centuries.

Full article here

The book Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon was given a starred review by Publisher’s Weekly.

The Space Review has this article about the book: Don’t know much about history: setting the record straight on Rocket Men

Does your library do anything to flag books with substantial errors?

Worst Master’s Degrees For Jobs
No. 25: Library and Information Science
Mid-career median pay: $57,200
Projected employment increase: 16%
Job growth, including replacement needs: 41%
Common jobs: Reference librarian, library director, law librarian

To the Library Community,

Presented below is an open letter to e-book creators and sellers inviting them to continue the relationship they have had with libraries and books in hard copy into the e-book and e-publication space.
If you agree with the letter’s proposal, please send copies of the letter to the book vendors you have relationships with and otherwise encourage them to offer e-books to the library community in ways that work with our business model.
There are few arguments as persuasive as a customer telling a vendor about things they would like to buy!
Thank you for your support!

An Open Letter to E-Book Creators and Sellers from Library Customers,
Libraries and their customers have a long and mutually beneficial relationship with authors, publishers, and vendors, based on the printed word – books. Now, with the emergence of popular e-books and e-book readers, libraries are positioned to continue that partnership with these exciting new products.
Libraries have much to offer e-book sellers as you work to establish a new successful business model around the e-book format. At the same time libraries need e-book providers to offer e-pub materials in ways that enable and support use by libraries and library users. Here is the deal.
We will help you sell popular e-books.

– When users find e-books in library catalogs or on websites, they can borrow them and may have the option to rent or buy them.
– Libraries buy lots of books, spending about $2 billion annually.
– Libraries are a big part of the reading public’s lives. They help people develop a passion for reading as children and indulge it as adults. Public libraries alone report 1.4 billion visits and 2.1 billion circulations annually.
– Library staff will develop customers for you. Librarians are great at helping the public learn about technology and will help readers learn about e-books and e-book readers
In order for us to help you sell and promote your e-books, we need you to sell or license them to us in a manner that works with our business model.
– Provide for electronic check-out to customers similar to how we lend hard copy items.
– Offer popular titles at reasonable prices.
– Provide e-books in standard format with standard digital rights management.
– Offer them to individual libraries and allow libraries to pool resources by selling to groups and consortia.
Books! Books! Books! – Writers, book sellers, and libraries have a long and mutually supportive relationship based on books! Please work with libraries and help us offer new popular e-book titles to libraries so we can continue this relationship as we move into this exciting new future!
Thank you for your consideration!

Linda Crowe
Executive Director
Pacific Library Partnership

Charlie Parker
Executive Director
Tampa Bay Library Consortium

Henry Bankhead
Principal Librarian
Los Gatos Public Library

Al Carlson
System Administrator
Tampa Bay Library Consortium

Heather Teysko
Manager
Califa

Chad Mairn, M.L.I.S.
Information Services Librarian
St. Petersburg College

Story in the Kansas City Star

I totally geeked out when I discovered a few years back that the iconic Cramer Kik-Step stool is made right here in Kansas City. Turns out our town really has had a “stool boom,” but much bigger than the one depicted in the fictional Missouri town in Christopher Guest’s funny 1996 film “Waiting for Guffman.”

Read full article

If you are interested in getting one: CRAMER 50TH ANNIVERSARY SILVERTONE KIK STEP STOOLS/ 1003-01 LIBRARY EDITION

Knowbility is an organization that advocates for technology that allows blind, deaf and otherwise disabled people to use the net. Knowbility’s Sharron Rush and Desiree Sturdevant talk about the challenges they face in raising awareness and changing the laws surrounding online usability.

Read transcript or listen to full story here. (You can also download a MP3 of story)

Fewer than 10 percent of the 1.3 million legally blind Americans now read Braille, down from around half in the 1950s. Reporter Rachel Aviv wrote about the dying language earlier this year in The New York Times Magazine.

Read transcript or listen to full story here. (You can also download a MP3 of story)

All summer “To Kill a Mockingbird” will be relived through at least 50 events around the country, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the publication of a book that became a cultural touchstone and an enduring staple of high-school reading programs.

Full article

David S. Ferriero is the 10th archivist of the United States. In this role, he leads the National Archives and Records Administration, the nation’s record keeper. Ferriero previously served as the Andrew W. Mellon director of the New York Public Libraries, where he led the development of the library’s digital strategy.

As the first librarian to serve as archivist of the United States, what unique experience do you bring to the job?

Article in the Washington Post